Ida Knew
by daisydresdendusk
Summary: Ida Scott could see how the Doctor felt about Rose. She tells her when the Doctor can't find the words. Short story


_ Ida Scott sat on the edge of the great, circular chasm. Beneath her dangling feet the darkness stretched into infinity. She could just barely see the orange pinprick of the Doctor lowering himself down, dressed in a space suit._

_ She supposed the air that filled the ethereal, ancient cavern would be cold, but she felt nothing other than the heaviness of her protective suit. She was separated from the realness of the moment by both the elements and disbelief at the situation that had unfolded._

_ Lead seemed to fill her limbs as she thought of Scooti. The younger woman had only been twenty, and had spent all of her adult life as a crew member on this mission._

_ Ida took a breath to steady herself. The air flowing from her oxygen tank was already thinning. She heard the faint clink of the doctor unhooking himself from the cord. A wave of sudden panic swept through her, pushing her to her feet in spite of the weight of the suit and her friend's death._

_ "Don't go!" Ida pleaded the doctor. She didn't want to be alone with the constant fear of the monster from hell, her grief, and the knowledge of her seemingly inevitable death. Most of all, she hated the thought of him dropping into the dark abyss to the lair of a creature claiming to be the devil of all myths._

_ "If they get back in touch-if you talk to Rose-just tell her...," the doctor paused, his voice growing fainter as he struggled to get his words out. "Tell her I...oh, she knows." The doctor let go of the cord and Ida watched as his single spot of color in the darkness fell instantly out of sight._

_ She didn't know why, but she had trusted the Doctor, and his presence put her terror in the back of her mind._

_ Now she felt a sense of finality as his almost certain death blew out her small candle of hope and her own end drew nearer with every breath._

_ A moment later she heard Rose's voice lined with the crackling of the intercom._

_ "Doctor? Are you there? Doctor, Ida, can you hear me? Are you there, Doctor?"_

_ "He's gone," Ida's own emotion paled in comparison to the palpable panic for her friend coming from the other woman. There was a static filled moment before Rose's voice returned, small with disbelief._

_ "What do you mean he's gone?"_

_ Ida hated every second of the delivery. Her own pain turned numb as she answered._

_ "He fell. Into the pit. And we don't know how deep it is, miles and miles and miles."_

_ "But...what do you mean he fell?" Ida knew Rose already had the answer, and that the confirmation would be almost as bad as receiving the information fresh._

_ "I couldn't stop him." Ida needed Rose to know, to say it aloud. She desperately wanted to give Rose something more. "He said-"_

_ Ida knew the words that had been on the tip of the Doctor's tongue, known even before he had clearly been about to give a message of his feelings. Ida had seen it on his face every time he looked at his blond companion._

_ "He said he loves you."_

Rose hadn't known what to do with the information. She left it turning like an ever present top spinning in the back of her mind. She didn't know if she believed it, and if she didn't, she was still unsure of how and why she had received the admission. She didn't know if the words were the Doctor's, and they were false, or if the untruth had sprung entirely from Ida's lips.

Rose loved the Doctor. Of that much, she was sure. First she had fallen in love with their life together. Then she fell in love with the happiness she would feel every morning as she woke and knew she would spend another day by his side. It was that happiness, that burning in her chest that she carried that made her unaware of falling in love. The feelings blurred, and she didn't stop to notice that she had fallen in love with the Doctor himself as she loved the adventures, the traveling, and their friendship.

And then one night they finished their late dinner and had stayed up talking and laughing for hours. It was finally agreed upon by both occupants of the ship that sleep was in order for their adventures tomorrow. The Doctor had walked her down the hallway to her room, hand in hand, their laughter filling the corridor. When they reached her door, his hand slipped slowly out of hers as she closed the door to her room, her wide grin the last thing he saw of her.

Rose stood in front of the door, warm yellow lamplight of her room filling her vision. Her stomach shifted with warmth and butterflies. Quite suddenly it had hit her that she was in love with him.

So, while Ida's words occurred to her frequently, it was a long while before she said anything.

But one night she lay next to the Doctor in the room he had designed so the ceiling seemed not to exist. Outside sky was visible as the Tardis floated through space. Rose remembered her first nights aboard the ship, when she had felt like she was in the middle of the ocean - stranded, fathomless space around her, dangerous creatures near by, yet more amazed and excited than she had ever been.

This night, the sky was dark with thousands of silver pinpricks overhead. There were far more stars, and far more planets visible from right here than from any spot on Earth. Rose knew each speck above her was the possibility of an adventure, something amazing, different and new. She could say the word, and they could go to any one of them. It brought a newfound wonder to stargazing.

She turned her head slightly so she could see the Doctor. He lay with his arm touching hers, his hands in the pockets of his pinstriped trousers.

Rose felt the relaxed, companionable sense of barriers knocked down that the middle of the night seemed to bring.

"Doctor..." She began.

"Rose..." He replied turning his face to her, eyebrows raised and his familiar smile on his lips.

She couldn't help but grin in return. "You know, when you went into the pit with the Satan monster-or not Satan, whatever it was..."

"Yeah?"

Rose turned her face back to the stars, suddenly serious, and feeling slightly nervous now. "Ida said...Ida gave me a message from you."

The Doctor breathed out. He started to turn his head up as well, but his gaze caught on her face, and he couldn't look away.

"I...I think there was something I was going to say. What was this message?" He rounded out the last word out through his lips, like he did frequently, but his voice faltered slightly.

"Nothing," Rose shook her head. "It wasn't anything."

"Oh, come on," the Doctor said lightly. "A message from me that I didn't give?" He nudged her.

Rose glanced at him, grinning again. "Never mind."

The Doctor propped himself on his elbow and looked down at her until she laughed.

"Alright. I don't know why she said it, if you didn't. Maybe she was just trying to make me feel better."

The Doctor quirked his eyebrow.

Rose smiled. Half teasingly, half reluctantly, she said "Ida told me you told her to say you love me."

The Doctor started at her, frozen.

After a moment Rose glanced away, and shook her head again.

"Ridiculous, yeah?"

It was a long several seconds before the Doctor replied.

"Of course I do."


End file.
